DrawingOtherstoChrist: Lima, Peru

I'm still a bit unbelieving that we are in Peru! One of my very favorite things about traveling is seeing old friends and meeting new friends and just talking, laughing, and encouraging each other.

We got to Lima, Peru 8 days ago, so that means we're supposed to be all better from our jetlag. I read that you can expect about one day per hour of time difference, for your body to adjust. Hello, Body? Did you hear that? Then why was I awake at 3:30 AM today and never went back to sleep?

My number one main delight of Lima was Nancy! She and I shared an apartment when we first came to Peru way back in 1988, and we have a huge file of "Remember when..." stories that just dissolve us into giggles even 28 years later. Even a mention of our cooking back then is knee slapper. We were basically peanut butter and jelly ladies, on bread from the bread guy who came around with his little cart, honking his horn. We would run out to buy from him, and that was the extent of much of our cooking.

We had a cleaning lady who came in for half a day, once a week, and she despaired of our eating style. Both of us were prone to eat standing up in the kitchen, as we'd dash into our apartment between classes, grab and gobble and go. But on Thursdays we'd have to reform or Hermana Dionisia would bully us into a chair and a more proper eating style.

Nancy and I got royally lost together once, as we tried to learn the local bus system. We got out of "local" and went to some township named Mangomarca that no one we knew had ever even heard of. We became a community project as friendly Peruvians helped two floundering gringas find their way home.

We laugh about the time our toilet started shooting water out the back. I ran next door to Rolando the faithful school janitor for help. I didn't know the word for "toilet" yet, so I came out with, "Hay agua en el aire!" (There's water in the air!) Not too clear, but Rolando came running. He plugged the squirting water with his finger, and then had me plug it with mine. He left! I wondered how long I was to stand there! After what seemed a very long time, he came back with a newly whittled plug to replace my finger.

Yesterday we had lunch with missionary Ken Loveall who leads the Bible Seminary in Urubamba, up in the Andes where it's chilly cold! We indulged in a favorite pastime of missionaries: swapping funny stories of language bloopers. I told about a missionary from Chile who was telling the story of the 99 sheep and the one who is lost and how the shepherd went after it. Except the missionary mixed up sheep (oveja in Spanish) with bee (aveja in Spanish) and told the story of the 99 bees, with the one little lost bee who the shepherd went after and put on his shoulders and brought it back to the fold.
Ken told about one time when he was leading singing and was supposed to sing, "Voy al cielo" (I'm going to heaven) and instead sang, "Voy al suelo" (I'm going to the floor.) Quite a different mental image.
Paul was preaching Saturday to a youth group in Cuzco, and said, "I used to be a chicken." Eric Pardine, the missionary translator, said "pollo" for chicken which is a cooked chicken and convulsed the youth.

Shame. I shouldn't be telling Eric's rare mistake. He and his wife Cassandra were so kind to us! They fed us, carted us all around Cuzco in buses, taxi's and in their car. He enthusiastically translated for Paul, organized meetings and acted like he knew us and loved us, when in fact he'd never met us 'til last Thursday.

There were more stories, but time would fail me to tell them all. And I think most people just want to see pictures so we'll start with Lima.

Nancy lives in the section called Surco. That cloud cover covers much of Lima from May-October each year. In Surco the sun breaks through some afternoons, but most mornings look a bit dismal. Nancy's on the 4th floor so we had quite a view. Lima is huge, about 10 million people, and constantly growing.

Our first trip to the grocery store we saw laundry detergent that made us think of my niece who has just gone to New Tribes Missions in Florida for training.

We saw milk that made us think of our niece in South Africa.

And we saw make up that made us think of the Pope.

The same trio that went to Rwanda is now on the loose in Peru. We took a "we-we" instead of a "selfie" in a Peruvian park.

Just to remind you which country we are in.

Lima sure has spruced up since I lived there 26 years ago

Lima is a desert city, with water coming from underground.

The first place Paul preached and drew was in my school, Fetzer Memorial Christian Academy, where I taught. He asked me to give my testimonty too.

Parks in Lima have exercise equipment right outdoors. I guess that's one of the perks of being a nearly rainless city.

Paul also preached at Nancy's school and the children's home in Lima where she is a Mom to 100 kids! That was special, but I was jet lagging, hence only this one pathetic picture.